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    Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Dog Lover's Companion
    Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Dog Lover's Companion
    Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Dog Lover's Companion
    Ebook274 pages3 hours

    Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Dog Lover's Companion

    By Bathroom Readers' Institute

    ()

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    About this ebook

    From mongrels to Marmaduke, Uncle John unleashes the mysteries, marvels, and mayhem of man's best friend.

    The only thing that’s more eager to please you than your dog…is this Bathroom Reader about dogs! It’s a very good book! Oh, yes it is! Good book! So cuddle up with your canine companion and lap up…

     

    * Movie mutts
    * Doggie heroes
    * The scoop on poop
    * Decoding your dog’s behavior
    * Famous folks and their faithful Fidos
    * How to train your puppy to be a TV star
    * Backstage hijinks at the Westminster Dog Show
    * The world’s largest, fastest, smartest, and oldest dogs
    * The stories of Marmaduke, Snoopy, Odie, and much, much more!
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPortable Press
    Release dateJul 15, 2012
    ISBN9781607106579
    Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Dog Lover's Companion
    Author

    Bathroom Readers' Institute

    The Bathroom Readers' Institute is a tight-knit group of loyal and skilled writers, researchers, and editors who have been working as a team for years. The BRI understands the habits of a very special market—Throne Sitters—and devotes itself to providing amazing facts and conversation pieces.

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      Book preview

      Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Dog Lover's Companion - Bathroom Readers' Institute

      The First Last Great Race

      Only the best and the bravest can run the Iditarod—which makes it a fitting tribute to the heroic men and dogs who helped save an Alaskan town.

      To Nome!

      Imagine a two- to three-week race with the world’s greatest runners moving at high speed for more than 1,150 miles. Instead of following a track, they’d trek through thick forests and snowstorms, over icy mountains and frozen rivers. They’d face below-zero temperatures, lonely tundra, and wild animals. These extreme conditions and some of the world’s toughest terrain make for a race that even Olympians would be hard-pressed to survive. It’s the Last Great Race on Earth, better known as the Alaskan Iditarod.

      Each year on the first Saturday in March, the world’s greatest dog teams race from Anchorage in central Alaska to Nome on the coast of the Bering Sea. Today, the dogs’ drivers, or mushers, can win thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. But back in 1925, when dogs and mushers first raced along the Iditarod trail, the stakes were much higher.

      Only the Dogs Could Save Them

      The trail started out as a mail and supply route from Seward, in southeastern Alaska, to Nome, but in January 1925, it took on a more important role. Nome, Alaska—then a town of about 1,500 people—faced a deadly epidemic. Six children had already died of diphtheria when Dr. Curtis Welch, director of the U.S. Public Health Service and the only physician in the area, announced that without antitoxin serum, hundreds more children and adults would die. Particularly at risk was Nome’s Native American population, which had no natural immunity to diphtheria.

      There were about 300,000 units of antitoxin in Anchorage, enough to halt the epidemic, but the state was in the grip of winter. Most of the days were dark, blizzards ravaged the landscape, and temperatures were well below zero. The open-cockpit airplanes of the day couldn’t make the trip, and the nearest railroad was in Nenana, 674 miles from Nome. The antitoxin traveled by train to Nenana, but from there, the sick residents had only one hope: the Alaskan sled dog teams.

      Doctors set up a relay of dog teams and mushers to carry the medicine along a portion of the Iditarod trail from Nenana to Nome. The name Iditarod, comes from the native Alaskan term haiditarod, or distant place. Indeed, the trail ran through some of the state’s most forbidding wilderness and was nearly impassable in winter. But the dogs would have to travel it in record time.

      On Your Mark, Get Set . . . Go!

      Glass vials of the diphtheria antitoxin serum were packed into a cylindrical container that was wrapped in quilting, canvas, and furs and then sent off from Anchorage by train. At 9 p.m. on January 27, the 20-pound package arrived in Nenana. Musher Wild Bill Shannon packed it on his sled and set off. The temperature was 40 below zero and dropping.

      Shannon’s team was led by Blackie, a sturdy black-and-white dog whose grandfather was a timberwolf. Blackie led eight other dogs (most of them inexperienced) across a frozen river, through snowdrifts, and into winds that blew them right off their feet. For some of the time, Shannon jogged alongside the sled to keep warm, but when he arrived in the town of Minto at 3 a.m., he was suffering from frostbite and hypothermia. Shannon and his team rested and warmed up and then took off again a few hours later. This time, Blackie led a team of only five dogs—the other three were left behind in Minto, too exhausted to go on.

      For the rest of the story, turn to page 129.

      Doggy Details

      Get to know dogs by the numbers.

      1

      Ranking of the Labrador retriever on the list of most popular domestic dogs in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

      2

      Times per year that most female dogs go into heat. Each heat lasts about 20 days.

      12 days

      Age at which most puppies’ eyes open fully. It takes about two more weeks for their vision to develop completely.

      15 years

      Average dog’s life span.

      24

      Percentage of dogs who receive formal obedience training.

      39

      Percentage of American homes with dogs living in them. That’s about 73 million dogs total.

      45 miles per hour

      Speed at which a greyhound, the world’s fastest dog, can run. The average dog runs about 20 miles per hour.

      60 days

      The gestation period for dogs.

      85 beats per minute

      The average dog’s heart rate, about the same as the average human’s.

      101.2°F

      A dog’s normal body temperature.

      200

      Average pounds of pressure per square inch that a dog’s jaw exerts. Large dogs exert more than 450 pounds per square inch. (A human jaw exerts about 150 pounds of pressure per square inch.)

      319

      Bones in a dog’s body. They also have 42 permanent teeth.

      14,000

      Approximate number of years ago that the first dogs were domesticated.

      Good Dog

      These heroic dogs saved the day!

      Blue

      What he did: One evening in 2001, Ruth Gay of Fort Myers, Florida, was out walking her dog Blue when she accidentally slipped on some wet grass and fell. The 84-year-old woman couldn’t get up, and no one heard her cries for help—except a 12-foot alligator that crawled out of a nearby canal. Gay probably would have been gator food if Blue hadn’t been there to protect her. The 35-pound dog fought with the gator, snarling and snapping until the reptile finally turned tail and left. Then Blue ran home barking, alerting Gay’s family that she was in trouble. Gay was saved. And Blue? He was treated for 30 puncture wounds. It’s amazing what an animal will do in a time of need, said the vet. He’s a pretty brave dog.

      Trixie

      What she did: In 1991, 75-year-old Jack Fyfe of Sydney, Australia, was home alone when he suffered a paralyzing stroke. Unable to move, he lay helpless, waiting for someone to discover him as the temperature outside climbed to 90 degrees. Fyfe was crying for water—and that’s just what Trixie brought him. She found a towel, soaked it in her water dish, and then laid it across Fyfe’s face so he could suck out the moisture. She repeated this every day until her water dish ran dry, then she dipped the towel in the toilet. After nine days, Fyfe’s daughter stopped by and found him alive . . . thanks to Trixie.

      Sadie

      What she did: Michael Miller was walking Sadie when he had a massive heart attack. He was unconscious, but his hand was still wrapped around Sadie’s leash. Sadie tried to revive him by licking his face. When that failed, the 45-pound dog began pulling the 180-pound man toward their home, a third of a mile away. For an hour and a half, Sadie labored; when she finally reached the back door, she howled until Miller’s wife came out. Because of the dog’s heroism, Miller recovered.

      Dorado

      What he did: On September 11, 2001, Omar Eduardo Rivera was working on the 71st floor of the World Trade Center’s north tower. Rivera, who was blind, was at his desk with his guide dog, a Labrador named Dorado. When the hijacked planes hit the building and chaos ensued, Rivera let go of Dorado’s leash in the hope that the dog would be able to run down the stairs alone and escape. But Dorado stayed at his master’s side, so Rivera took hold of the leash and let Dorado lead him to the stairwell. The two took the stairs slowly despite the panicked people around them. At one point, they were separated, and Rivera thought Dorado had gotten lost in the crowd. But a moment later, the trusty Labrador nudged his master’s leg, and the two traveled down the remaining stairs and out to safety on the street.

      To read about some naughty dogs, turn to page 77.

      For more good dogs, turn to page 217.

      * * *

      Food Fit for a King

      Throughout history, the very wealthy fed their dogs food that was much better than what most humans ate.

      •Nineteenth-century Chinese Empress Tzu Hsi fed her Pekingese shark fins, quail breasts, and antelope milk.

      •During the 1700s and 1800s, European nobility fed their dogs roast duck, cakes, and candies.

      •Some European royals even gave their canines highly prized liquors.

      All in a Day’s Search

      Dogs can be trained to do many jobs, but few are more important than search-and-rescue. Here are eight things you may not know about search-and-rescue dogs.

      1.Most search dogs are recruited from animal shelters. Their breed doesn’t matter. German shepherds, Labs, golden retrievers, and bloodhounds are the best known animals used for search-and-rescue, but Border collies, bulldogs, and even mutts also do well.

      2.Agility and persistence are two important personality traits in a search dog. These animals need to be . . . well . . . dogged. They’re successful because they don’t give up.

      3.Search dogs were used to sniff out bombs and land mines as early as World War II. They were trained to locate metal.

      4.Search dogs are not trained to attack, even when they’re military dogs. They need to focus all their attention on tracking a scent, and must ignore any distractions, including possible attacks. It’s their human handlers who are trained to watch out for danger so that the dogs can work.

      5.Damp weather keeps a scent low to the ground and makes it easier for the dogs to track, so rain and fog are ideal conditions for a search.

      6.Dogs are taught to specialize. Cadaver dogs look for remains but not live people. Rescue or live find dogs look for survivors. Other dogs zero in on particular smells. If something’s got an odor, a dog can be trained to track it down.

      7.A nasty rumor spread back in the 1970s that cadaver dogs would tear into their finds if not stopped. But that’s untrue. Like any other type of search, once the dog finds something, he barks and waits to be rewarded.

      8.Cadaver dogs are trained to sniff out human blood and skin, but no state allows people to buy body parts, making training these animals a challenge. Trainers resort to all sorts of tricks to teach their dogs to look for human remains—they’ll even prick their own fingers to leave blood for the dogs to find.

      Underdog Is Here

      He’s one of animation’s most enduring characters and the first real hero to be tied to a product. Here’s the skinny on the link between a kids’ breakfast cereal and the popular crime-fighting canine Underdog.

      Born in the Boardroom

      The year was 1960, and General Mills—maker of Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and other popular children’s cereals—was looking for a way to increase sales. The company’s execs hired a New York ad agency called Dancer Fitzgerald Sample to figure out a way to do it. W. Watts Biggers, an account supervisor who’d started his career with the agency as an intern in the mail room, took the job.

      Biggers teamed up with three others: writers Chester Stover and Treadwell Covington, and an artist named Joseph Harris. They asked themselves a couple of questions: Who’s most likely to eat General Mills cereals? (Kids!) And what’s the best way to communicate with those children? (Television!) So they decided to create a cartoon that would be sponsored by General Mills. Ads for GM cereals would run during commercial time, of course.

      Doggone Brilliant

      Biggers came up with a canine superhero, one who had powers like Superman but who also made mistakes and was silly, like kids. He named the hero Underdog and gave him a secret identity: Shoeshine Boy. Shoeshine didn’t have any inborn superpowers; he was just a regular, lovable pooch. But when danger was on the horizon, he dashed to a phone booth, changed into his crime-fighting outfit (tights and a cape), took an Underdog Super Energy Vitamin Pill, and voilà! He turned into a superhero and uttered the phrase, Never fear. Underdog is here!

      The vitamin pill was key to Underdog’s powers. Without it, he was just a common hound. With it, though, he could move planets, defeat bad guys, and fly. So he always kept a spare in a ring on his finger . . . just in case.

      Hitting the Airwaves

      Biggers and his team finished the first cartoons in early 1964, and the first installment ran on NBC in October, with Wally Cox (of Mr. Peepers and Beverly Hillbillies fame) voicing the title character. Underdog was an instant hit. Kids loved the silly canine crime-fighter, and General Mills loved how many kids were being exposed to their cereal commercials.

      With a successful cartoon under their belts, Biggers and his team left Dancer

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